South Asia Program

Posted on: 9/8/2009 Archived on: 9/15/2009 A major issue today is whether globalization of the world’s labour,
capital and product markets, together with rapid economic growth in
India and China, will have an adverse effect on workers in the US
and other advanced countries. Simulations of different scenarios using the World Econometric Model
of the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance (CERF) indicate
that, at a disaggregated level, there are severe supply-side
constraints relating particularly to natural resources (energy and
raw materials) which thwart the expansionary demand effects of fast
growth in India and China.

The Universe Hangs on Sound: Indian Classical Music & Beyond

Posted on: 9/7/2009 Archived on: 9/15/2009 "The right sound, at the right time, in the right place," is the
yogic, or contemplative ground, which merged with classical form,
brings out the richness of Indian Classical Music. Steve Gorn will
explore this relationship with an offering of words and music

Indian Classical Flute and Beyond, a Concert of Flute and Tabla

Posted on: 8/31/2009 Archived on: 9/12/2009 North Indian classical flute (bansuri) concert by Steve Gorn with tabla accompaniement by Sameer Chatterjee. This concert will also include some "cross-over" pieces by Steve on various wind instruments.

The South Asia Seminar Series Presents: "Youth and the Politics of an Indian Middle Class" by Craig Jeffrey, Associate Professor in Geography and International Studies, University of Washington

Posted on: 4/8/2009 Archived on: 4/11/2009 Global social and economic changes have pitched increasing numbers of people into situations of chronic "waiting". People feel invested in certain hopes for the future but lack the means to realize their dreams. This talk examines the politics of waiting with reference to unemployed young men in India. It will point to the emergence of a distinctive youth masculinity built around the idea of "timepass" and focused on the streetcorner as a site of male display. Professor Jeffrey will also show how waiting precipitates collective youth political action and also narrower forms of politicking that reflect the prerogatives of a youth middle class among the unemployed. Waiting emerges not as a passive activity but as an active process of engaging in the world replete with possibilities for cultural practice and political mobilization.

The South Asia Program Seminar Series Presents: "Ethnographic Practices, Administrative Implications, and Construction of 'Tribalness' in Colonial Assam" by Suryasikha Pathak, Fulbright Fellow, SUNY Oswego, Department of History.

Posted on: 4/1/2009 Archived on: 4/7/2009 The region that came to be known as Assam was annexed to the expanding empire of the East India Company in 1826. The colonial state encountered in this region, societies that were in a flux and ‘different’ from rest of India, and a heterogeneity which was remarkable as far race and caste and religion were concerned. As administration, missions and markets penetrated deeper into the region, it was confronted by rebellions and attacks that were launched at the British troops, officials, tea planters and travellers. These imperatives of governance, maximization of revenue and attempts of arriving at a comprehensive knowledge, gave rise to a body of literature built around certain stereotypes which by the end of 19th century attempted to grasp the reality of colonial Assam in a classificatory hierarchy. This framework was immediately applied in the collection, tabulation and organisation census data. The demographic and geographical division of the region as ‘hills’ and ‘plains’ made boundaries and ethnicities more tangible and impermeable. Census itself became a site of contest for identities, of ‘tribe’ and ‘caste’. As the colonial state gradually moved towards reform and representation, those claims in the census became rapidly politicized in provincial politics. One of the earliest communities to articulate and assert such claims were the Bodos. The Bodos are one of the largest groups in the Brahmaputra valley. The Bodos articulated their ‘difference’ from the ‘caste Hindu Assamese’. This idea assumes political importance once located within the framework of colonial knowledge that the more ‘hinduized’ the ‘tribes’ became, especially after living in the plains for generations, they lose their ‘tribalness’ and identity. The period of communal and communitarian politics, representation based on numbers made identity and its administrative definition crucial. This dichotomy between the hills and the plains created for administrative practices led to classification of communities which in turn defined the nature and space of their political participation. From 1930s onwards, provincial politics became a space where along with the Assam Provincial Congress, the Muslim League, another political party, the Tribal League played a pivotal role. The Tribal League claimed to represent all the ‘Plains Tribes’ of Assam and reassert their claims as opposed to the dominant claims of Assamese caste Hindu population and appropriated the colonial ethnographic discourse to articulate difference.

The South Asia Program Faculty Luncheon

Posted on: 3/19/2009 Archived on: 3/24/2009

The Visual Culture Colloquium Series Presents: Garbage Never Looked So Good: On the Global Environment and Contemporary Indian Art," by Saloni Mathur, Department of Art History, UCLA

Posted on: 3/18/2009 Archived on: 3/24/2009

The South Asia Program Presents: “An Evening with Kabir: Documentary Film and Concert”

Posted on: 3/18/2009 Archived on: 3/24/2009 Filmaker Shabnam Virmani will present one of four documentary films from film quartet, "Journeys with Kabir." Followed by concert: Kabir Singers and intro by Linda Hess.

6:30 pm film
8:00 pm performance

"The Limits of Diagnosis: Sex and Law in Indian Psychiatry," by Sarah Pinto, Tufts University.

Posted on: 3/4/2009 Archived on: 3/10/2009 This paper examines conflicted narratives of sexuality in the context of medicine and law in north India by considering the case of a young woman undergoing court-ordered psychiatric evaluation in the case of a contested marriage. In examining the role of sexuality in her diagnostic process, I ask what social and symbolic processes are involved in medico-legal practice in north India, what reform histories shape the way diagnosis unfolds, and what stories it becomes possible and impossible to tell when love, gender, agency, and rationality are in question.

The Invisible Discriminations Event Series presents: "Are You Calling Me a Racist Old Chap?" British Neocolonialism by Arun Kundnani, London's Institute of Race Relations

Posted on: 2/26/2009 Archived on: 3/3/2009 Arun Kundnani will discuss the origins and continuances of British racism as it pertains to South Asians. Dinner is provided.

The Invisible Discriminations Event Series presents: "Uncovering a Global Underclass: Women Made Visible" by Arun Kundnani, London's Institute of Race Relations and Jane Berger, ILR Visiting Fellow

Posted on: 2/26/2009 Archived on: 3/4/2009 A panel discussion that will cover some of the transformations creating a modern global underclass. The discussion will go over topics such as citizenship, neoliberalism, Islam & poverty. A reception with refreshments will follow. This event is co-hosted with the International Women's Day Committee

The Invisible Discriminations Event Series presents: "Regulating Migration in a New Security World: The Role of Non-State Actors" by Gallya Lahav, SUNY Brookstone

Posted on: 2/25/2009 Archived on: 3/5/2009 Dr Lahav's workshop will be centered on how nation-states are maintaining borders in a globalizing world. Dr Lahav specializes in the politics of international migration and European integration. Her talk will based on the role of the EU and other non-state actors in Europe. Lunch will be provided.

Film Screening " The Sky Below" & Discussion with Director Sarah Singh

Posted on: 2/25/2009 Archived on: 2/28/2009 Sikh Association is assisting with the screening of the film " The Sky
Below" as well have the director, Sarah Singh, here on campus to have a
Q/A discussion. The film revolves around the on India-Pakistan
conflict and gives perspective from both sides of the border. The film
screening will be taking place this Friday, February 27th, at 6pm in
Statler 196.

"From the Global to the Local: A Case Study on the Implementation of Children's Rights in Bangladesh" by Andrea Schapper, Department of Asian Studies, Cornell Univeristy.

Posted on: 2/25/2009 Archived on: 3/3/2009 This case study examines how principles of global child rights conventions gain meaning among local children in the urban slums and poor rural areas of Bangladesh. These principles predominantly refer to protection from economic exploitation and hazardous work and the provision of education and health services. The study is part of a broader dissertation project which aims at highlighting how international human rights norms do not only require acceptance or ratification and transformation into national legislation and policies in order to have an impact. Of particular relevance for children’s rights implementation in Bangladesh are local level activities, the installation of regulatory mechanisms, the involvement of a variety of actors and sophisticated targeting procedures in order to reach out to the norm addressees. Three of such project activities, initiated by an international organization, the national government and a non-governmental organization, will be introduced here. An in-depth analysis provides details on how these programs reach children, communicate with them and their community, make them aware of their rights and provide social and economic alternatives for them to foster sustainability. The results of the study strongly call for paying closer attention to local level activities and the interwoven nature of multilevel systems in the field of human rights and within global governance research.

YaliniDream: "Wounds Unkissed."

Posted on: 2/18/2009 Archived on: 2/21/2009 YaliniDream incorporates her unique blend of spoken word poetry, song, theater, and dance in a performance that speaks to the survival of spirit. This vigorous performance journeys thru many spaces from the humorous conflict of a young girl's dilemma between sexy thoughts and bedtime prayers to a mother coming to terms with her daughter's sexuality & community's contradictions to the heart wrenching stories of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. YaliniDream travels this terrain through a hybrid form of dance that draws upon contemporary and classical South Asian forms as well as US Urban dance forms such as Hip Hop and Experimental House. YaliniDream's work speaks to the heart, conjures the spirit, and incites the intellect through her performance, "Wounds Unkissed."

"Sick of bouncing between in betweens, I live in the borderlands where poetry is theater is love is movement is song is prayer is rebellion. I look to reshape reality seeking peace through justice in the lands of earth, psyche, spirit, and dream."

The South Asia Seminar Series Presents: "The Art and Craft of Emancipation: The First Women Architects of India and Sri Lanka" Mary Woods, Cornell University, Department of Architecture.

Posted on: 2/17/2009 Archived on: 2/24/2009 Mohandas Gandhi's independence movement brought large numbers of Indian women into the public realm for the first time. In the thirties and forties several of these women were among the first to study architecture, and they established practices in post-independence India and Sri Lanka. Focusing on such figures as Minette de Silva, Pravina Mehta, and Gira Sarabhai, I will explore how patronage of traditional arts and crafts became integral to their design methods and practices. Swadeshi, the boycott of British imports, led to an arts and crafts movement understood as defiance and rebellion. Gandhi’s spinning wheel and wearing of khadi (homespun cloth) became highly charged symbols in the struggle for independence and self-determination. Tracing the translation of these ideas into architectural form, I focus on how these women architects tried to reconcile his faith in the arts and crafts with Nehru’s hopes for a modern architecture expressive of the new nation state.

The South Asia Program Seminar Series Presents: "Sufis and Movie Stars: Charismatic Muslims for Middle-Class Hindus." Professor Daniel Gold, Cornell University, Department of Asian Studies

Posted on: 2/10/2009 Archived on: 2/17/2009

The South Asia Program Seminar Series Presents: "Articulating Regionalism through Vernacular Popular Music:The Case of Nauchami Narayana in the Uttarakhand Himalayas" Stefan Fiol, Eastman School of Music

Posted on: 2/3/2009 Archived on: 2/10/2009 In March 2006, the popular Garhwali recording artist Narender Negi released the vernacular music album Nauchami Narayana just months before the state assembly elections in Uttarakhand, North India. The title song, appropriating formal and stylistic features from regional spirit possession ceremonies (jāgar), sharply satirizes the two main national political parties in India, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for their mismanagement of Uttarakhand since the regional state was first formed in 2000. While it is difficult to measure the effects of a single song on the political landscape, Nauchami Narayana became the best-selling song in the history of vernacular popular music, and most analysts agreed that it was a major factor contributing to the defeat of the Congress party in the elections. An examination of this protest song and of the aggressive response of the Congress-led government – which censored the video album, restricted Negi’s opportunities to perform the song publicly, and released its own parodies of the song – provides an opportunity to theorize vernacular popular music in relation to political projects of regionalism and nationalism in South Asia and beyond. How does popular music articulate regionalist sentiment? How is regionalist sentiment discursively framed in relation to the nation and other adjacent regions? Finally, how does regionalism serve (and threaten) the interests of the capitalist industry and the state?

The South Asia Program Seminar Series Presents: "Poor Choices: The Rise of Subaltern Religious Nationalism in India" by Tariq Tachil, PhD Candidate, Cornell University Department of Government

Posted on: 1/26/2009 Archived on: 2/3/2009 Under what conditions will a religious nationalist party with a historically elite support base be able to win the mass support required to succeed in democratic politics?
In this project, I examine why the upper-caste Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janat Party in India has experienced variable success in expanding its base among lower caste Hindu voters across Indian states. Using national and local suvey data, and extensive interviews gathered during 13 months of fieldwork, I establish that this success cannot be explained through conventional arguments centered on either problematic conceptualizations of 'primordial' communal divisions or the manipulative capabilities of ethnic elites in creating such divisions. Instead it depends on the local strength of the BJP's grassroots ethno-nationalist affiliates working to provide social services to marginalized communities. Such service work allows an upper-caste movement to establish contact with distrustful communities, and subsequently mobilize these electorates by using a 'developmental' rhetoric that seeks to transcend caste-based identities. Lastly, I argue the demand for these services itself varies across India, according to the level of public provision of such services, and the existence of alternative caste organizations competing to mobilize these populations.

The South Asia Program Seminar Series Presents: "Something There: Playing Basketball in Pakistan and Afghanistan" by Naeem Inayatullah

Posted on: 1/21/2009 Archived on: 1/27/2009